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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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Promoting investment in NE by Ranga Jayasuriya The Government is negotiating an insurance facility against political risk in a bid to promote investment in the North-East. Peace Secretariat Chief Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala said this week that the Government was negotiating a Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) facility to promote investment in the North-East. MIGA is the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank, which promotes foreign direct investment in developing countries by insuring against political risk. "...Countries like Sri Lanka, which have been affected by conflict, have to think about how to improve the investment climate in general, and also come up with investment promotion strategies specific to the conflict area," Dr. Dhanapala said delivering the Sujatha Jayawardene memorial oration at the Colombo University Alumni Association. He said the ceasefire had triggered an economic growth in the North-East and the North-Central provinces, referring to findings of a research survey conducted by the Economic Division of the Peace Secretariat. According to the research conducted by Senaka Abeyratne and Rajith Lakshman, the GDP of the Northern province has grown by an average of 12.6 during the ceasefire compared to 3.4% during the period prior to the CFA. The GDP of the Eastern Province has increased by 10.1% per annum during the ceasefire, compared to 4.6% during the period prior to the CFA. And the GDP of the North-Central Province has increased by 8.2% per annum during the ceasefire compared to -0.2% during the period prior to the CFA. The research findings also reveal that the Northern Province grew twice as fast as the Western Province in respect of annual post-CFA GDP growth (12.6% versus 6.2%) "It is therefore plausible to argue that the increase in the average GDP growth rate of Sri Lanka as a whole from 3.9% per annum in the pre-CFA period to 5.0% per annum in the post-CFA period was due largely to the exceptionally high growth rates realized collectively by these three provinces", Dr. Dhanapala said quoting from the research findings. |
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